James series – “The Litmus Test for life”

 James 5:7-11

⁷ Be patient, then, brothers and sisters, until the Lord’s coming. See how the farmer waits for the land to yield its valuable crop, patiently waiting for the autumn and spring rains. ⁸ You too, be patient and stand firm, because the Lord’s coming is near. ⁹ Don’t grumble against one another, brothers and sisters, or you will be judged. The Judge is standing at the door! ¹⁰ Brothers and sisters, as an example of patience in the face of suffering, take the prophets who spoke in the name of the Lord.¹¹ As you know, we count as blessed those who have persevered. You have heard of Job’s perseverance and have seen what the Lord finally brought about. The Lord is full of compassion and mercy.

After seeing the practice of patience we now come to:

2. The Product of patience – Peace – Vs 8-9

James reminds us that practicing patience produce peace with people. But a lack of patience ruins our relationships with people. He reminds us that patience doesn’t just impact our relationships right now but carries eternal consequences. And because of that James doesn’t just get down to business he gets bossy. There are two verbs right next to each other in verse 8 and both of them are imperatives. Imperatives are those kinds of words that you use when you want your kids to put down their phones and take out the trash! The first command is, “be patient.” This is not a suggestion but a scriptural command. James doesn’t allow for any loopholes or wiggle room. With the force of Scripture inspired by the Holy Spirit we are commanded to be patient. It’s not an option its obedience. Then in a parallel statement, James commands us to “take courage” that means “to strengthen” or “establish” “to make solid”. It literally means “to prop up to prevent collapse.” When James commands us to establish our hearts, he’s telling us to courageously stand firm by purpose in your heart to patiently wait on the Lord. Are you patiently working hard to prop up your heart to keep it from collapsing in the chaos? In Psalm 40:1-3, David says “I waited patiently for the Lord to help me, and he turned to me and heard my cry. ² He lifted me out of the pit of despair, out of the mud and the mire. He set my feet on solid ground and steadied me as I walked along. ³ He has given me a new song to sing, a hymn of praise to our God. Many will see what he has done and be amazed. They will put their trust in the Lord.” We don’t know what tomorrow holds but we know who holds tomorrow. We don’t have to fear the future when our faith is in God the Father. The fact that Jesus is coming again is the rock we hook our hope to. Are you anchored to the author of life or caught up in the chaos of life? The promise of His return is the hope that prop up our hearts and keeps them from collapsing. But like most things in life, you have a choice to make. Either you can patiently establish your heart in the promise of Christ’s coming. Or you can take your eyes off Jesus and put them on yourself. We do that when we removing Jesus as the only standard of judgment, replace the Savior with self as the new standard of judgment. Instead of seeing yourself and others judged by God as sinners either in need of a Savior or sinners saved by grace, you elevate yourself as judge. You unhook your anchor from the Rock and try to make yourself the rock that everyone else needs to anchor to. When we cast of patience and stop looking to Jesus as the judge we also cast of peace with people. And when we do that it’s a decision that carries eternal consequences. There is only One righteous Judge, Jesus and we are all held to His perfectly holy standard. That’s why we so desperately need God’s grace. One of these days we will all stand before Him and what do you think He will say if you have been impatiently setting yourself up as the judge instead of trusting in Jesus? Verse 9 says that He will judge us. Patiently trusting in Christ’s return, provides the power to not only courageously live for Christ in a corrupt culture without cowering, but also the power to live at peace with people without being critical and condemning. Trusting in His return doesn’t just mean being patient with our problematic circumstances but with problematic people. Why are we waiting on Jesus, what’s the hold up? 2 Peter 3:8-9, “But you must not forget this one thing, dear friends: A day is like a thousand years to the Lord, and a thousand years is like a day. 9 The Lord isn’t really being slow about his promise, as some people think. No, he is being patient for your sake. He does not want anyone to be destroyed, but wants everyone to repent.” It’s here that we are reminded of how patient God is with people. People come with problems that will challenge your patience but do you notice that God the Father is focus on them coming to faith not on the frustrations. One of the keys to being patient with people is a proper perspective. Many of us are making it about the frustrations instead of people coming to faith. The second key to patience is we need to focus on serving not selfishness. Notice that God’s focus is on people, His patience is centered around helping others. Look selfishness never serves patience, instead it will sever the spine of patience, leaving you crippled and callused. Many of us become impatient with people because we have put the spotlight on self not serving. Are you being patient with others and recognizing that they too are growing in grace and are not perfect.

James series – “The Litmus Test for life”

James 5:7-11

⁷ Be patient, then, brothers and sisters, until the Lord’s coming. See how the farmer waits for the land to yield its valuable crop, patiently waiting for the autumn and spring rains. ⁸ You too, be patient and stand firm, because the Lord’s coming is near. ⁹ Don’t grumble against one another, brothers and sisters, or you will be judged. The Judge is standing at the door! ¹⁰ Brothers and sisters, as an example of patience in the face of suffering, take the prophets who spoke in the name of the Lord.¹¹ As you know, we count as blessed those who have persevered. You have heard of Job’s perseverance and have seen what the Lord finally brought about. The Lord is full of compassion and mercy.

When it comes to waiting we need to be careful that we don’t see it as doing nothing. Because James also reveals that patience involves:

• Working 

Waiting involves the work of ploughing and preparing the soil. So let me ask you are you ready for the rain, patience prepares us to plant, it prevents us from missing ministry opportunities. The soil has to be prepared in order to plant the seed. Patience isn’t just sitting around. So what does pushing the plough look like? It’s the hard work of prayer. Are you ploughing the soil with prayer, parents are you praying for your prodigal kids? Are you ploughing the soil of their hard hearts with prayer, are you praying for the seed that’s been planted? Or are you giving priority to panic. I’m in ministry today because my Mom put her energy into working and waiting not worry. She ploughed ahead in prayer, even though there was no sign of fruit not even a small shoot of green growth. She prayed over the hard-frozen bleak winter field of my life because she didn’t focus on what she saw she focused on the Savior. Instead of focusing on her heartache over the pain of a prodigal son she focused on the Hope that only comes from Heaven. Ploughing ahead happens when the team of oxen are tied together with the yoke. In Matthew 11:28-30 Jesus said, “Come to me, all of you who are weary and carry heavy burdens, and I will give you rest. ²⁹ Take my yoke upon you. Let me teach you, because I am humble and gentle at heart, and you will find rest for your souls.³⁰ For my yoke is easy to bear, and the burden I give you is light.” We become weary in well doing when we do it in our own strength. Are you ploughing, or pouting? If we are not careful, we will spend our time whining instead of waiting and working. If you don’t farm by faith you will fall victim to fear and frustration. How do we wait patiently for Jesus by remembering that He has been patient with us. He patiently pursued you and now in patience we pursue Him. But it’s hard for us to sit still because many of us want to be in charge and in control. The truth is impatience is a form of unbelief. It’s what happens when we start to doubt God’s goodness and guidance. We feel like nothing is happening that He doesn’t care and so we get angry with the Almighty, and go off on God, we end up spraying shrapnel everywhere, ruining all of our relationships. We have two decisions to make.

• We can choose to wait on God right where we are and not giving up. Instead of bailing on God, let Him use His waiting room to build you up.

• We can determine to go at His pace rather than being reckless and trying to run the show.

Give God His Place and keep in step with His Pace. So how are you handling the frustrations of life? Are you focusing on faith or fairness? Are you praising or protesting? How do you have hope in hard times, by focusing on the harvest not the hardship. Are you patiently working and waiting for the fruit of the field to be ripe unto harvest?